Computers

Starting in college, I used to buy a new computer every two years. However, I kept the PC that I built when I returned from Japan in 1999 until the release of Windows Vista. Looking back on it, that was probably too long. I'm starting to catch up with the latest technology, and now I'm buying or building a new computer every year. Pretty soon I'll have to start throwing out some of the old PCs.

• Aparna is my mid tower built in 2007 to replace the aging Shakti as my primary PC. It's relatively state-of-the-art, but I'm already planning my upgrade strategy. I'm going to probably move the RAID cage and some other hardware to a new file server machine, keeping Aparna as a gaming machine. I'm still trying to decide which parts should go where, though.
  
  
• Uma is my new (2006) laptop, purchased mainly for travel. I love being able to take my recorded TV on the road; I watched eight movies on a road trip to Nashville. It can also be used for some light gaming; Quake 4 runs OK. I bought my parents a wireless router so I can use my laptop when I visit them. I upgraded to Vista Home Premium, and despite a few early hiccups it's been pretty solid.
  
  
• Lalitha is a home theater PC (HTPC) built in 2005. It is hooked to the TV in the living room, and I added an Ethernet jack to the wall separating it from my office, so that it's on the same gigabit switch as the rest of my machines. I primarily use it for two things: recording TV shows (especially movies off of TCM) and watching downloaded anime fansubs. I have a Vista license key for it but I'm waiting a while before I upgrade.
  
  
• Shakti was a Pentium III gaming powerhouse that I built when I returned from Japan in 1999. I had missed out on a lot of 3D gaming while stuck with a laptop, and I was anxious to get back into the scene. However, dial-up couldn't compare to my old campus Ethernet connection (or even ISDN), and gaming hardware requirements continued to grow, so Shakti has mostly become an Internet/multimedia workstation. It is finally being retired, but I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with it yet.
  
  
• Amba is one of two identical Pentium II machines I picked up dirt cheap in the spring of 2002 at a gov't sale. It came with a 400 MHz processor, 128 MB of RAM, a nice 100Mbps network card, and the same Asus motherboard as Shakti. I cannibalized the other machine to add another 128MB of RAM, added the 40 MB IDE drive from Shakti in it (so Shakti could be entirely SCSI), and bought a 120GB Quantum as the primary drive. At that time, Amba had tons of storage compared to my SCSI machines so I used it as a file server.
  Later, so that I could have a standalone PC rather than relying on the KVM switch, I added a wireless network card, a 19" Dell LCD monitor and keyboard, and a Logitech mouse. I also installed Shakti's TV tuner card, so I had a roving PC/TV for a while. Then after I got Uma, I hooked up Amba in my home office connected to the router, and now it's used as a dedicated bittorrent machine with locked-down security. Most of the data that's stored on it is being moved to the RAID array on Aparna.
  
  
• Durga is a third cheap Pentium II machine purchased along with Amba. This one is similar to the other two except it's a 300 MHz full tower with on-board SCSI. It's been used off and on as a Linux machine, but I've been pulling parts from it to keep Shakti running, so I'm thinking about scrapping it. It has 256MB of RAM and a 2GB hard drive.
  
  
• Parvati is the laptop I bought in 1997 to take with me to Japan. Unfortunately I couldn't wait for the PII laptops that were due in a few months, and I've never really been satisfied with this machine. Still, it kept me online for most of two years. Now that I have a new laptop, this one is probably headed for the trash bin.
  
  
• Gaijin began life as a Gateway P5-100XL in 1995, but most of the original components have either died or are now part of my father's new PC. It had been rebuilt as a Debian Linux server, but it's currently unplugged since I'm using the PIIs. Gaijin was the first machine I ever named, because when I made the switch from Windows 3.1 to NT 3.5, I had to name it something.
  
  
• Miscellaneous hardware: I have a Linksys wireless router connected to my cable modem, and a Netgear 5-port gigabit switch hooked to that. I have a Brother HL-2070N laser printer on the network for use by all the PCs. I have a Casio digicam for taking pictures and stuff. I also have a Cybex (now Avocent) SwitchView 4-port KVM, which is currently used to connect both Shakti and Amba to the Dell LCD, since Aparna is hooked to my primary monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

If you've been keeping count, you'll know that in addition to my three new PCs, I have six PCs (including Amba's unnamed twin in my parents' basement) that are ancient and basically worthless. Even Shakti, the newest of the group, would cost more to upgrade than replace. About the only things worth keeping in it are the SCSI drives with PCI adapter, the CD and DVD drives (which are both replacements for the originals), and the case itself.

The picture above is my old setup. From left to right beneath the desk are Shakti, Amba, and Durga. The small white box in between Shakti and Amba was my UPS, which has been replaced with a SmartUPS 1000. To the right of the monitor are my old inkjet printer (now trashed) and, above it, the Microtek SCSI scanner. The edge of the scanner can be seen on top of the file cabinet in the picture at the top of the page. Amba and Shakti are still there, and Aparna is on top of the desk along with the Brother laser printer. The Logitech sub is under the desk, along with the SmartUPS. The KVM is on top of Amba. Since this picture was taken, I've swapped the keyboards and mice, and replaced the old blue mouse with the Logitech G5.

Links

Ars Technica
[H]ard OCP
The Tech Zone
Slashdot
Debian GNU/Linux

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